Greetings Citizens,
We have just hit $16 million in pledges for Star Citizen! The entire Cloud Imperium team is humbled at your dedication to our game, space sims and the PC. With the imminent release of the first Hangar Module we are going to show our dedication to sharing game development with our fans by giving them the earliest ever look at a AAA game… and with this new funding achievement you have shown your dedication to this project once again!
With this milestone you have unlocked the following stretch goals. You will learn more about each in a more detailed post later in the week!

Arena mode: The next generation of Wing Commander’s TrainSim allows pilots to test out their combat skills against friends or strangers in a simulation. Gain valuable combat experience without the downside of losing your ship in the game universe! Place bets on competitions across the galaxy.

Every pledger who backs before $16 million will receive a laser pistol. Keep your ship safe from boarders with a pistol by your side.

We are also now pleased to reveal the $18 million goals:

Exclusive star system for pre-launch backers. Only players who support the game before its
launch will receive the computer coordinates needed to allow their jump drives to access this system.

Truth to be told $19mil is not really that much for AAA game. Apparently the original estimate was $25mil. Looking at the Hangar episodes and their HQ I think Chris took very "down to earth" approach and he is not splashing money. That's good because he would need them to make it to the finishing line.

I think instead of pistol or starting planet the good type of investment may be more realistic 3D scan & movements that we currently have in the Hanger:

Wence they already have a green screen filming studio (it was one of the earlier goals). The existing pilot movements we have are probably mostly first draft stuff and I expect they will improve over time (as will everything else). 20 million adds planetary combat on foot so I expect that will see a lot of the next million spent on improved character animation.

If they didn't make another cent in pledges they would still be in a great bargaining position with any publisher. Think if they went to any of the big guys and said "We made 19mil off of our own hype. We need 6mil more to finish the game. Want to be cut in for a slice of the pie? No you get no control just a repayment of your investment and a percentage of the net profit. So you want in or do I go ask another?"

Saying that I really don't think they will need it. If they sell the limited time ships once more with LTI during a big song and dance they will get 2mil from that alone. Add to that say 1 more ship for LTI and you likely will be at 25mil. I know I would be tempted to buy the Retaliatetor of it went back on sale and I am only one of hundreds if not thousands thinking that.

They still have to release constellation, freelancer and hornet variants before the LTI period ends (which I'm pretty sure they said they'd do). There's also the chance of Cutlass variants. I'm sure releasing variants would pick up a decent amount of money. Although pricing would have to be right. I mean it's already $250 for a constellation, $25 extra for a variant I can see, $100 for a variant I'm not so sure about. But yeah, they still have a lot of options available to raise funds (live stream on 10/10 I'm betting). So they'll pretty safely make the original "full funding" goal.
By "full funding" i mean have enough money to complete CR's original vision for the project with no need to cut anything out.